1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a meter pointer device, in particular, a meter pointer device having a meter pointer, a motor for rotating the meter pointer, a main substrate disposed on a rear wall of the meter pointer on which the motor is mounted, a base plate to be rotated together with the meter pointer by the motor, a light source mounted on the base plate for emitting light to the meter pointer to illuminate the meter pointer, and an electric wire for connecting the base plate to the main substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A meter having a display device disposed at a front side of a dial plate is known. Owing to this layout, the display device can be seen without it being interrupted by a meter pointer, and the display device is disposed at the center of the dial plate.
However, in a case that the dial plate displays important data such as vehicle speed, and the display device displays relatively unimportant data such as the present time, there is a request that the dial plate is more front side than the display device to increase the visibility of the dial plate.
So, in response to the request, there is proposed a meter pointer device in which a tip of the meter pointer is folded toward a rotating shaft, and then folded back away from the rotating shaft, thereby the meter pointer can point the dial plate without interfering with the display device.
For illuminating such a meter pointer rotating around the rotating shaft, it is necessary to arrange LED light sources to surround the rotating shaft. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to eliminate uneven illumination when the meter pointer is rotated. Further, it is necessary to provide many reflecting walls for guiding the light entered from the rotating shaft to a tip of the meter pointer so as to illuminate the meter pointer having such a complex shape. Therefore, there is a problem that an attenuation of the light is large and sufficient brightness cannot be attained.
So, for solving this problem, for example, a display device 100 with a meter pointer device shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 incorporated therein is proposed (Patent Document 1). As shown in these figures, the display device 100 includes: an LCD display 101; a dial plate 102, a main substrate 103; a motor 104; a meter pointer 105; and a lead wire 106. The LCD 101 displays data such as warning, current time, or the like.
Indication marks (for example, numbers) which the meter pointer 105 indicates are formed on a front side of the dial plate 102 by printing or the like. The main substrate 103 is disposed on a rear wall of the LCD 101. A motor main body 104A of the motor 104 is mounted on a rear wall of the main substrate 103, and a rotating shaft 104B of the motor 104 is projected toward a front side of the main substrate 103. The meter pointer 105 includes: a base plate 105A; an LED light source 105B; a pointer main body 105C; an attaching member 105D; and the like. The base plate 105A is attached to the rotating shaft 104B and extended outward in a radial direction of the rotating shaft 104B.
The LED light source 105B is mounted on a front side of the base plate 105A at an outer end in a radial direction of the base plate 105A. The LED light source 105B emits light forward. The pointer main body 105C is composed of light guiding members, and as shown in FIG. 8, formed by being extended vertically from an outside of the LCD 101, then folded toward the center of the dial plate 102 and extended to an inner periphery of the dial plate 102 via the LCD 101 and the dial plate 102, and then folded to a front side and extended to a front side of the dial plate 102, and folded back to the outside of the dial plate 102 to point a front wall of the dial plate 102. The attaching member 105D is fixed to the pointer main body 105C for attaching the pointer main body 105C to the base plate 105A.
According to the above-described display device 100, because the LED light source 105B is mounted on the base plate 105A which is fixed to the rotating shaft 104B, the LED light source 105B is rotated coincident with rotation of the meter pointer 105. Therefore, the uneven illumination of the meter pointer 105 when the meter pointer 105 is rotated can be eliminated. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, three reflecting walls M11, M12, and M13 reflects the light L from the LED light source 105B to guide the light L to the tip of the pointer main body 105C. Therefore, the number of reflection is reduced, and the brightness of the pointer main body 105C is increased.
The lead wire 106 is a wire for supplying electricity and connects the main substrate 103 to the base plate 105A around the rotating shaft 104B. The lead wire 106 is electrically connected to the base plate 105A by soldering. Owing to this lead wire 106, even when the base plate 105A is rotated, the electricity is supplied to the base plate 105A from the main substrate 103.
According to the above-described display device 100, the lead wire 106 is used as a wire connecting the main substrate 103 with the rotating base plate 105A. However, the lead wire 106 is hard to be deformed corresponding to the rotation of the meter pointer 105 (low mobility). Therefore, when the meter pointer 105 is rotated, stress is applied to a soldering portion (connection portion) between the lead wire 106 and the base plate 105A, and there is a worry that reliability may be reduced. Further, because the lead wire 106 is hard to be deformed, there is a worry that the lead wire 106 may be raised toward the meter pointer 105 corresponding to the rotation of the meter pointer 105 to disturb the rotation of the meter pointer 105.
So, as shown in FIG. 9, the lead wire 106 is caught between a regulator main body 107A of a regulator 107 and an arm 107B of the regulator 107 for preventing the lead wire 106 from being raised. However, when the regulator 107 is provided, a man-hour for attaching the lead wire 106 to the regulator 107 is needed. Further, when the regulator 107 is provided, there is a problem that the mobility of the lead wire 106 is further reduced, and more stress is applied to the soldering portion between the lead wire 106 and the base plate 105A when the meter pointer 105 is rotated.
[Patent Document 1] JP, A, 2010-19619
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a meter pointer device which prevents stress from being applied to a connecting portion between a rotating base plate and a wire to improve reliability, and prevents the wire from being raised even without a regulator to eliminate an attaching work of the wire to the regulator and to improve workability.